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Rating scale

Here's the rating scale I use, and how it corresponds to BGG ratings:

- Enthusiastic: I love the game and want to play it. (9, 10)
- Suggest: Good game, I want to play it and will usually suggest it. (7, 8)
- Indifferent: I'll play the game, if necessary, but won't suggest it. (5, 6)
- Avoid: I don't want to play this game. (1-4)

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Of green

The green colour of the sidebar is the Brunswick Green used by Nationalised British Railways - Western Region:

"A different color, also called "Brunswick green", was the colour for passenger locomotives of the Grouping and then the nationalized British Railways. There were three shades of these colours and they are defined under British Standard BS381C - 225, BS381C - 226, and BS381C - 227 (ordered from lightest to darkest). The Brunswick Green used by the Nationalised British Railways - Western Region for passenger Locomotives was BS381C - 227 (rgb(30:62:46)). RAL6005 is a close substitute to BS381C - 227. A characteristic of these colours was the ease for various railway locations to mix them by using whole pots of primary colours - hence the ability to get reasonably consistent colours with manual mixing half a century and more ago."

1860 ps18xx PBEM finished

My first ps18xx game ended today. 1860: Railways on the Isle of Wight, against Ed Rustin. I won. The start was good: Ed paid £180 in the opening auction, while I paid only £90. I got IOW, Ed got C&N, two privates each.

In stock round 2, I had enough money to start IWNJ, and Ed helped me float it. Operating round 2 saw the start of phase 3. Stock round 4 had Ed start FYN, while I got NGStL. Both floated. On stock round 6, Ed got BHI&R and VYSC, while I got S&C. First 5+3 was bought in OR 6.1, as was the first 6+3, rusting the 3+2:s.

Stock round 7 was just stocking up on VYSC, FYN and NGStL shares. OR 7.1 was mostly withholding, the first 7+4 and 8+4 were bought on OR 7.2. IWNJ bought the first 9+5 on OR 7.3. I had to sell some shares and pay £490 from my own cash for it, but it was worth the trouble. On stock round 8, we both sold the rest of IOW shares we had, making it insolvent and in receivership. Now S&C was the only owned company without a train. That changed in OR 8.1, when S&C bought a 9+5, starting the nationalization. Three rounds of that and the game was over.

I had a strong start and at some point was leading almost 4000-3000 or so. When the train rush hit, my companies took some hits and first we were even and then Ed had the lead for a while. However, when I did get the trains in place, things started rolling again. I had more certificates and I owned 100% of IWNJ and NGStL, both of which were running for £340. Ed’s companies had 6+3, 6+3 and 7+4 trains, which meant they were eliminated first in the nationalization process.

In the end, I won £11,301 vs £7,761.

The game was generally very pleasant, very little token wars or anything… Well, BHI&R was — again — screwed with tragic tile lays. That’s the way it is done, as far as I can tell… I’d be very reluctant to start BHI&R, especially if I didn’t control IOW.